The current Collective Bargaining Agreement allows teams to control their players until age 26, and with the current cap it is difficult for franchises to throw wads of cash at popular free agents.

This means that franchises must select the right players on draft day and understand how to develop them—even if they operate in a city free agents would find attractive.

Boston, Chicago and Pittsburgh—three perennial contenders that recently won the Stanley Cup—built their teams around the draft.

In fact, four moribund franchises—the Penguins, Washington Capitals, St. Louis Blues and Los Angeles Kings—turned their fortunes around through the draft.

The San Jose Sharks, Nashville Predators and Ottawa Senators—three expansion teams—have become perennial contenders, while the Minnesota Wild, Columbus Blue Jackets and erstwhile Atlanta Thrashers have struggled since their inception, due to poor drafting and player development.

Certain teams, like the Philadelphia Flyers and New Jersey Devils, have fewer homegrown players yet remain competitive. Others, like the Buffalo Sabers, have a roster full of skaters from the pipeline but cannot get over the hump.

Two non-traditional market teams, the Florida Panthers and Phoenix Coyotes, do not have a lot of players from their system and use their young talent to supplement their veteran players, rather than the other way around.

Still, generally, the league’s best teams know how to put together a roster full of drafted-and-developed players.

The slideshow places greater emphasis on recent picks and focuses on players on current rosters. However, all drafted players were considered.

Notable Picks are only players currently on the roster of the team that drafted them.

It may be a stretch, but I counted players that are on the roster of the team that drafted them, even if they've played elsewhere during their career.

Before I rip into the Blue Jackets, who haven’t won a playoff series in franchise history, I have to acknowledge that they struck gold in 2006 (kind of), have had some late-round luck and have some recent picks with promise.

But…

Well let’s just go through all their first-round picks in franchise history:

The Wild captured Minnesota in 2000 when they brought professional hockey back to the Twin Cities after a seven-year hiatus.

Unfortunately, that momentum has tempered due to poor on-ice performance.

The team’s struggles can be tied back to management’s inability to draft and develop quality prospects from the first round of the draft.

Only two of the franchises’ 13 draft picks are in a Wild uniform today. Marian Gaborik and Brent Burns were traded in their primes. AJ Thelen and James Sheppard never panned out. Benoit Pouliot threw temper tantrums. Colton Gilles was waived, and Nick Leddy was foolishly dealt to Chicago.

The jury is still out on Tyler Cuma. He may be a late bloomer like Clayton Stoner.

Current prospects Mikael Granlund, Jonas Brodin and Zack Phillips look promising, however. Perhaps there is a bright future in store for hockey fans in Minnesota.

Their drafting has been solid. Their high picks (which are plentiful) have produced. However, I could have selected some of these players. Management in Edmonton has been a beneficiary of the lottery rather than cerebral.

Odds are we’ll be talking about how good this young team is a few years in the future.

When most people hear “NHL Draft”and “Islanders” in the same sentence, they immediately write them off because of Rick DiPietro.

New York has done better in recent years, however, giving hockey fans on the Island some hope that their team will turn things around. Kyle Okposo, Josh Bailey, John Tavares and Nino Niederreiter all look like bona fide NHLers.

With solid drafting and pickups like Michael Grabner, the Islanders are giving themselves a chance to turn things around before it's too late and they are forced to move from Long Island.

The Stars have been “almost there” on their shoestring budget because of solid drafting and favorable trades. Brenden Morrow, Trevor Daley and Loui Eriksson—three franchise players—were acquired through the draft. Alex Goligoski and Kari Lehtonen came via trade, and Sheldon Souray was a good recovery project.

20. Colorado Avalanche

Colorado underachieved this year. They should be better in the future.

Management has done a great job with the draft, swindling San Jose to get Jamie McGinn (a young player with upside) and bringing in Peter Mueller, Erik Johnson and Semyon Varlamov—three players that should get better with time.

The Avalanche have a solid young core. It’s a matter of time before they start winning again.

The zombie Thrashers drafted most of Winnipeg’s players and, to be fair, did a pretty decent job. Obviously, the team was not competitive enough to stay in Atlanta, but as the players develop in Winnipeg, the Jets 2.0 could become a formidable threat.

The trick is keeping the players in town. There is already speculation that young-star Evander Kane has a bad boy rep and wants out of town.

18. Carolina Hurricanes

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Carolina is building something special.

I know this team has only made the playoffs once in the last five years, but they re-signed Tuomo Ruutu and Tim Gleason in the offseason, made a great free-agent pickup in Chad LaRose and have done a great job with the draft.

Cam Ward and Eric Staal were staples in the team’s Stanley Cup victory, while Jamie McBain, Brandon Sutter and Justin Faulk should be productive players for years to come.

14. Philadelphia Flyers

This team is made up of a lot of outsiders, since Mike Richards and Jeff Carter were shipped out of town. However, Claude Giroux has proven himself to be a franchise player this season, and Sean Couturier looks like a promising young player.

The jury is still out on JVR, but odds are he’ll get an honest shot at being a cornerstone player next season.

Just look at that list. This team drafts well—or at least well enough to put a team on the ice made up primarily of draft picks.

Christian Ehrhoff, Brad Boyes and Ville Leino were all imports, but for the most part, this is a homegrown team.

Certainly, fans in Western New York would like to see their team get past the quarterfinals (or make the playoffs at least), but with new ownership and solid drafting, the Sabres should keep their talent in Buffalo and build a contender around them.

With their ability to turn draft picks into productive NHL-caliber players, Nashville has turned itself into a model organization for both small-market and non-traditional market teams.

Predators management has turned players from all throughout the draft into productive players at hockey’s highest level.

How good are they?

Three of the team’s defensemen came from the 2003 draft. Pekka Rinne was drafted in the eighth round in 2004. In 2005, the eighth and ninth rounds were eliminated. Patric Hornqvist was the last player chosen in 2005.

The question now is not “Can Nashville develop players?” but rather “Can they keep them on their roster?”

The Rangers made headlines for bringing in big-name free agents Brad Richards and Marian Gaborik in the offseason, but it was management's drafting expertise that has put this team in position to reach the Stanley Cup Finals this season.

The core of this team was built through the draft and complimented through free agency.

With a formula like that, the Rangers are in position to become a perennial contender.

The Capitals franchise has turned its fortunes around using the draft to fill out their roster. Alexander Semin, Alex Ovechkin, Mike Green, Nicklas Backstrom, Braden Holtby and Marcus Johansson all came from their system.

The team hit jackpots in 2004 and 2009, drafting three regulars each year.

While Washington is now expected to compete every year, the Caps have a reputation of flaming out early in the playoffs. Time will tell if these drafted-and-developed players can elevate to the next level or if management will have to look outside the organization for help.

By the way, Jay Beagle—who had more ice time than Alex Ovechkin in the playoffs—was a free-agent pickup out of Alaska-Anchorage.

The San Jose brass has done a great job of building a contender using players overlooked on draft day. This has been crucial for this franchise, as they have often been left out of the draft lottery due to their recent successes.

Unfortunately, things appear to be moving in the wrong direction for the franchise, as three budding players—Milan Michalek, Devin Setoguchi and Jamie McGinn—were recently dealt away.

They went all-out in 1999 to get the Sedin twins and have gotten great value from Kevin Bieksa, Ryan Kesler and Corey Schneider. It's safe to say Alexandre Burrows was a good free-agent pickup as well.

It is a watershed offseason for Vancouver, after they were bounced from the playoffs in the first round this season. Time will tell how they go about turning this team’s fortunes around.

The Penguins have rejuvenated their franchise by using the draft, and it paid off when they won the Stanley Cup in 2009.

Granted, many of their picks were no-brainers. Who wouldn’t have selected Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin or Jordan Staal?

Still, they made Marc-Andre Fleury work for them—no small accomplishment, as goaltenders drafted that high do not always pan out (I’m looking at you Rick DiPietro).

The major knack against the Penguins when it comes to drafting is their inability to find hidden gems late in the draft—something they’re going to need to do if they continue to have the success they’ve become accustomed to lately.